Encanto upends Disney tradition with an adventure that never leaves home
Walt Disney Animation Studios’ 60th feature is a visual feast with a family focus
Film Reviews Encanto
From Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs to Raya And The Last Dragon, Walt Disney Animation Studios has spent the past eight decades perfecting its signature riff on the classic hero’s journey. So it’s a bold move that for its 60th feature, Encanto, the studio turns so many of those classic tropes on their head.
Where most Disney animated protagonists are lucky if they get at least one living parent, Encanto’s plucky leading lady, Mirabel Madrigal (Stephanie Beatriz), lives in a house bustling with extended relatives. (How fun to see a Disney heroine with cousins!) And far from being special, she’s actually the one ordinary member of a family defined by their magical abilities. That makes Mirabel a sort of reverse Elsa, if you will, and instead of setting off on an adventure to find herself, her quest leads inward into her own family history and the secrets buried inside it. Therein lies Encanto’s biggest innovation: It’s a Disney adventure that never leaves the house.
To be fair, this is no ordinary abode. The film’s casita sits at the heart of an “encanto,” a magical town tucked away in the mountains of Colombia. The enchanted house has its own quirky personality, like the carpet from Aladdin. It can also conjure up massive, magical new rooms every time a family member comes of age and gains their power. (“It’s bigger on the inside,” one visitor gasps like they’re stepping into Doctor Who’s TARDIS, as they enter a cavernous jungle room ready-made for action sequences.)
Drawing from the Latin American tradition of magical realism, Encanto weaves its vision of magic into everyday life. The casita’s floorboards jostle to help Mirabel slip into her shoes as her glamorous older sister, Isabela (Diane Guerrero), sprouts flowers wherever she walks, Meanwhile, her mother, Julieta (Angie Cepeda), cooks food that can heal any ailment. From shape-shifting and super hearing to the ability to control the weather and talk to animals, the Madrigal family use their special gifts to keep the encanto running smoothly under the watchful, demanding eye of family matriarch Abuela Alma (María Cecilia Botero).
As ever, Disney succeeds at enveloping its audience in a lushly realized world that presents inventive visuals in a comfortingly classical animation style. While directors Byron Howard and Jared Bush previously made Zootopia together, it’s Howard’s work on Tangled that feels most influential here. The multigenerational, multiracial Madrigals offer a diverse representation of the Colombian experience, with each skin tone and hair texture represented as lovingly as Rapunzel’s locks were in that 2010 princess film. Encanto also borrows Tangled’s use of warm, glowing light as a major motif. The Madrigal family’s powers come from an enchanted candle that appeared to them in a time of strife. They refer to it as their “miracle,” and that religious reverie could also apply to the gorgeously twinkling imagery on screen too.
Storywise, the film’s family theme is also a welcome departure from the overly complicated, mythology-heavy worldbuilding of recent Disney animated films like Raya and Frozen II. Despite their #blessed attitude, all isn’t right in the Madrigal household. It’s Mirabel who first starts to see the cracks (literally) emerge in the picture-perfect façade her family puts forth as leaders in their community. And her investigation into their faltering magic leads her to discover that those closest to her are struggling far more than she realized. “I’m worthless if I can’t be of service,” Maribel’s super-strong older sister Luisa (Jessica Darrow) sings while literally carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders. Encanto delivers a poignant message about not focusing so much on our own burdens that we miss the fact that others around us have them too.
Yet like Disney’s other big November release, Eternals, Encanto struggles to serve its massive ensemble effectively. With 12 or so featured players, there’s just not enough room to flesh out their relationships to Mirabel and to one another while still making time for the requisite action-adventure moments and Mirabel’s own emotional arc too. Some characters we barely get to know at all, while others have their big issue introduced and resolved in a single song. It doesn’t help that Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical numbers lean towards a pop sound that’s fun and catchy but lacks the emotional punch of Disney’s usual Broadway stylings. For all its compelling individual elements, Encanto doesn’t quite manage to weave them together into something greater than the sum of its parts—which is especially frustrating given that the idea of communal support is a driving ethos of the film.
Still, that unevenness gives way to great moments. The film’s standout sequence is a flashback montage set to Miranda’s elegiac Spanish-language song, “Dos Oruguitas.” There, Encanto re-anchors itself as a movie about intergenerational trauma—the way that the necessary survival methods of one generation can become the unhealthy coping mechanisms of another. It’s weighty but gently handled material in a thematically dense film that will likely reward multiple viewings. (Good news for parents.) While Encanto doesn’t break the Disney mold, it does give it an enchanting new shape. And it offers a timeless reminder to viewers of all ages: A problem shared is a problem halved, whether you’re leaning on your loved ones or the sturdy walls of an enchanted house.
63 Comments
As much as I love Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda is a bit overdone at this point. Find someone else, Disney!
He might be stretching himself a bit too thin.
But his directorial debut, Tick Tick Boom, is really good. At least that’s what I thought.
He wants his EGOT and they want to keep him happy so they get the next Hamilton too.
I mean, since Hamilton he’s been primary composer for Moana (huge hit, significant musical evolution from In the Heights/Hamilton) and this. He’s ubiquitous, sure, but composing for two movies in 7-8 years is hardly oversaturation.
Other that he’s just otherwise focused on a broader range of acting/directing/whatever he wants that his success rightly afforded him. Normal level prolific for a “big name” actor.
They’ll stop hiring him when the money trucks stop delivering, but I think he’s done as good a job of diversifying his output and preventing saturation as anyone could while still leveraging the creative freedom they’re offered.
This is his fourth movie this year, with In the Heights, Tick… Tick… Boom, and Vivo. Saying he’s overexposed at this point is an understatement.
In the Heights was originally going to be released last year, and the other films have been in the works for a while.
Movie release schedules aren’t exactly in his control, especially during COVID. I know that perception of him doesn’t entirely map to “how the sausage gets made”, but people don’t have to entirely ignore it either.
In fairness, neither In the Heights nor Vivo were supposed to come out this year. They were both supposed to be released in 2020. Vivo was supposed to be released a full year before Encanto and In the Heights another six months before that. Like or don’t like whoever you please, but the overexposure aspect is down to Covid bottlenecking his projects more so than a plan to make Nov. 2021 Lin-Manual Miranda month.
The funny thing is only a few months back did I realize the other Miranda scored (and voice acted in this case) CGI family film Vivo, actually came out (on Netflix) this past Summer. I thought it was DOA. So that adds one other animated musical he’s written for, even if barely anyone seemed to notice—or maybe just me and you didn’t notice (and I tend to pay attention both to animated and musical releases). Wiki says it was Netflix’s most watched film in August, and it has a pretty good RT and Metacritic rating, with quite a bit of praise for the songs. (I’ll check it out… sometime)
But yeah, I don’t think he’s really spreading himself too thin writing wise. I think it’s more that he just seems to be *everywhere*.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivo_(film)
These were all Covid delays – Vivo was supposed to be a theatrical release in Nov. 2020 (basically Encanto’s release date, but in 2020). Because of Covid, Sony Animation sold it off to Netflix. Encanto and Tick…Tick…Boom are the only 2 that are coming out when they were arguably planned to be released (and even Tick…Tick…Boom probably ended up a little bit later because of production delays).
Lin’s fallen all the way to the floor in my estimations as a person, but I have to admit that his work on Moana was nothing short of brilliant and was instrumental in giving the movie its incredible tone.
why, whats he done? (Honest question, never heard anything negative about him)
His In the Heights had no excuse to be as white as it was. I also recommend looking into his dad’s history in Puerto Rico and filtering that through Lin’s refusal to identify as white himself.
Didn’t he finally come out with a proper statement regarding that? Definitely not saying he did good there, but I thought he’d made an effort to grow. Maybe I misread?
ok, i dug around and see that he confessed that he should have cast more Afro-Cuban actors in In the Heights. tbh didn’t notice that in the movie, but i don’t know from the real Washington Heights, so i didn’t have a reference. And yeah, it read sincere to me too.
From what I saw, that neighborhood is heavily Dominican (iirc) so it was definitely not representative. But yeah, I think he also just did an interview being like “being criticized isn’t cancel culture.” He seems nice, just grew up with biases like most of us.
After being roundly criticized and saying he’d do better for the dearth of actual Black voices in Hamilton, it doesn’t mean much this time around.
Totally fair.
Not familiar with Miranda’s prior promise to do better (re: dearth of actual Black voices in Hamilton). Do you have a link?I’m also unfamiliar with the criticism. When you say ‘dearth of actual Black voices’, do you mean actors or characters?
will look into it but honestly, i don’t remember any white actors in In the Heights. Do you mean the crew was mostly white?
Being Hispanic and being white are not mutually exclusive. So you should definitely look into that.
duly noted
Right? Someone call Phil Collins.
Hamilton is absolute trash, cringy crap for white liberals who are scared of black people.
Yes, like other Broadway stars like Julie Taymor! She worked with Disney on the Broadway version of The Lion King, and one of her more infamous ventures, Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark is based on an franchise now owned by them. And as an added bonus, working with Disney may mean she’ll have access to actual stunt performers rather than dancers who didn’t sign up for such dangerous work!
I’m just waiting for Taymor’s latest Disney IP Musical: Thor: RagneRock!
I don’t care who they get, just so long as they don’t go back to Randy Newman.
I liked the animation but I kept thinking of Moana’s songs which were instant ear candy. Away, away…
It feels like Disney’s animation has gotten really stale after they moved to digital, every single movie since Tangled seems to look exactly the same. Just wish they’d alternate art styles or something between movies, the last animated movie I remember with a distinct style was Princess and the Frog.
This is the feeling I’ve had after watching some of the 2D films I hadn’t seen before (like Brother Bear or Atlantis). Each film has its own style and look, and they’re all gorgeous. Sure, the CGI these days is a vast step from the first Toy Story, but what good is it if every film is just going to look exactly the same?
Totally agreed, Pixar has managed to at least make most of their movies feel different(monsters inc/inside out/soul/coco all feel pretty unique) so it’s not impossible in 3d Disney just doesn’t seem to care.
So well said, and yeah, that’s a big issue for me too (but I’ve long been one of those grumpy guys who complains about CGI dominance). I thought Tangled managed to (mostly) get a unique and fitting style (even though they spent YEARS trying to get a unique “painterly” style and still only half managed it). But since then there hasn’t been much diversity, despite (I admit) some beautiful sequences.
I don’t need every film to look unique. I’m a big Studio Ghibli film and most of their work (especially all the Miyazaki directed films) have somewhat of a uniform style. But with Disney trying to test different genres with each film, this really stands out (and classic Disney did a good job of establishing a Disney look while still making each film distinctive for the most part—of course sometimes more so than other times, ie Sleeping Beauty followed by 101 Dalmatians being probably the biggest change between two films in sequence.)
Completely agree with the lack of innovation in style, and I see it especially in character design. Even recent Pixar films seem to be going for a very generic, homogenized look to its human characters. Would love to see something that pushed some visual boundaries and celebrated difference.
Is it just harder (read: costlier and more time-consuming) to come up with different character design in this mode? Where a different shape likely requires a lot of different modeling? Because it is pretty stale to my eyes but I am also heavily biased against this style anyway.
It’s certainly not impossible, re: Mitchells and the Machines and Spider-Verse.
I really need to check out Mitchells. And I love Spider-Verse and its brilliant animation, but are its humans that distinct from the ones in Encanto? There’s a conversation above about house style and how there isn’t that much differentiation over the years sometimes, and I think that’s true. But I think it’s also easier, especially with less complicated 2D animation, to make small changes carry more of a charge — if there’s only a few factors making a face, changing one changes a lot. Changing a little across the styles here changes less.
I don’t think that’s true of Pixar? Luca’s character design was pretty darn distinctive, and the gulf between the upcoming Turning Red and Lightyear is pretty wide.
Luca felt more ‘Disney’ in terms of visual design than any Pixar film I remember and I think that’s true from what I’ve seen of Red and Lightyear so far. I hope I’m wrong though.
To some extent I agree, but I also think any era of Disney animation had its own house style that persisted between movies. It’s a lot easier to notice departures, but you could generally grab a few disney animated films from any decade and tell they came from the same studio.
Disney definitely has always had a recognizable house style. But I think even within eras there were notable differences. Sleeping Beauty’s gorgeous stylization thanks in large part to the work of Eyvind Earleis distinctive enough from Cinderella, 9 years earlier, with its design largely based on Mary Blair’s work and I’d squarely put those two in the same era (post WWII Disney, pre-101 Dalmatians and the Xerox technique). Of course in the eras where they were their most ambitious, you see this in particular—the backgrounds of Pinocchio are NOT the same as the almost abstract backgrounds of Bambi. Pocahontas’ gorgeous use of colour and angular characters is not easily confused with Beauty and the Beast, or Aladdin with its Hirschfeld inspired designs and Hercules with itsGerald Scarfe influence.
The era where you see the least stylistic differences really is probably the 60s-70s (and going into the 80s). The rough Xerox look of 101 Dalmatians was perfect for that film—not so perfect for Sword in the Stone, etc, etc.
And now I’m just rambling. But my point is a house style isn’t the problem I see with current Disney CGI films where the basic human models, etc, all seem to be the same (even if they have done some interesting work with colour palette at least).
I tend to agree, but Moana was absolutely gorgeous and fully justified the style.
I also came here with Moana as a strong example of genuine diversity in both skin color and body type, and I’m hopeful for this movie in that regard as it shares a lot of the creative team.
The trouble with Disney films these days is that they have such brilliant concepts and ideas, and yet the execution always feels so generic. Same faces, same style, same musical numbers. I’d have loved to see what Pixar could’ve done with magical realism like this.
Pixar movies also suffer those problems. It’d be nice if they did something closer to classic animation or went big and experimental with it like Spiderverse.
I’m not disagreeing with you especially with the Spiderverse praise – it’s definitely way more offbeat and trippy for a mainstream animated Western film – but it’s still funny to me to hear it described as “big and experimental”.
Compared to most superhero movies and a lot of Disney animation it is. But yes, there is weirder stuff out there.
This sounds a lot better then I expected. Intergenerational trauma and what worked for the last generation doesn’t work now is something I can hella related to. I was gonna see it anyway but now I definitely will.
Glad to see Beatriz getting high profile lead roles.
The “one ordinary member of a magical family” dynamic is making me think of Ray Bradbury’s stories about the Family and in particular “Homecoming,” which has a similar setup. Probably too sad to be adapted into a movie like this, though.
About 10 years ago there was an attempt to use that family as the foundation of a Bradbury cinematic universe, but the first film languished in development hell for so long the rights reverted back to the Bradbury estate.
Oh wow, never knew that! The Family is really cool but I think it’s hard to adapt Bradbury’s shorts into something feature-length.
Inspired by Colombian magical realism? Is there a scene where a strangely enormous drowned corpse washes up on the shore and everyone in the Madrigal family falls in love with how sexy he is?
Spoilers!
Save something for the sequel!
Stephanie Beatriz? Shit, I’m in.
Lin-Manuel Miranda? Shit, I’m out.
To me he’s like a modern Stephen Schwartz. Moments of brilliance but most of the stuff feels too schlocky to me. Miss the old Ashman/Menken times.
Honestly, fair.
Every poster and trailer shows its huge cast, not necessarily a good thing.
Is Dreamworks gonna sue Disney for so much use of “Dreamworks smirk?”
Seems to kind of play into the stereotype of latinos having big families.
Promo material looks like the main character suffers from an acute case of RDF: Resting Dreamworks Face
I was a little shocked to find the “Stern Matriarch Forbids Anyone To Talk About The Uncle Who Mysteriously Disappeared But Actually He Never Stopped Caring Even Though He’s Gone A Little Crazy Now” subplot from COCO recycled wholesale here.